Advisory board replaces emergency manager in Pontiac

View full size(Khalil AlHajal | MLive.com)Pontiac City Hall is on its way back to local control after Gov. Rick Snyder on Monday, appointed a Transition Advisory Board to guide the city out from under emergency management.

. That leaves five Michigan cities run solely by emergency managers: Detroit, Flint, Benton Harbor, Allen Park and Hamtramck. Pontiac Emergency Manager Lou Schimmel told the governor on Friday that he's determined the city's financial emergency to be "sufficiently addressed," Snyder's office announced Monday. "The Transition Advisory Board will be working cooperatively with local leaders to ensure continued stability and growth on the path ahead as well as improved services to the city’s residents," Snyder said in a release. Pontiac officials began touting improved finances demonstrated by

. Dramatic changes including eliminating the city's police and fire departments helped bring the Pontiac's budget under control after losing thousands of jobs and property tax sources with the closure of GM plants. (Related:

) The city has been under emergency management since 2009. Schimmel was granted sweeping new powers under a stronger financial emergency law Public Act 4, in 2011. Voters rejected that law in a 2012 referendum last year, but

, which went into effect in March. Schimmel will be a member of the Transition Advisory Board. “I believe city officials and Pontiac residents alike will benefit from the appointment of this board,” Schimmel said in a statement. "We can help facilitate a smooth transition to local control while providing appropriate guidance and oversight." Snyder did not name a set timeframe for keeping the board in place and said its goal is to ensure a "responsible financial course... in the months and years ahead." Ed Koryzno, of the state Treasurer’s office, Robert Daddow, a deputy Oakland County executive and Keith Sawdon, finance director for Rochester Hills make up the rest of the board. Schimmel cited the following factors in determining the city ready to move to the next step: • "Implementing health care and benefit reforms by consolidating 87 benefit plans into one to ensure quality, affordable but sustainable coverage for employees." • "Selling excess capacity in the city’s sewage treatment plant to Oakland County for $55 million, allowing the city to significantly reduce its debt ($87 million) and eliminate its structural deficit ($9.2 million)." • "Creating a regional fire department (merger with Waterford Township) that reduced the cost of fire services by $3.6 million annually while strengthening services." • "Contracting with the Oakland County Sheriff for police services, which saved the city $2.2 million annually while also boosting public safety and ensuring more officers on patrol." • "Reducing general fund expenditures by nearly $30 million in six years by closing defined benefit pension systems, eliminating money-losing enterprise activities, consolidating or streamlining departments, and modifying the city’s hiring process."